“Damage” to fiber optic networks in six departments

The affected departments are Bouches-du-Rhône, Aude, Oise, Hérault, Meuse and Drôme. “Localized consequences on access to fiber, fixed telephony and mobile telephony” have appeared, according to the Secretary of State for Digital Affairs.

Fiber optic networks were cut in six departments on the night of Sunday 28 to Monday 29 July, a police source reported to franceinfo, confirming information from AFP. The departments affected are Bouches-du-Rhône, Aude, Oise, Hérault, Meuse and Drôme.

These “degradations […] have localized consequences on access to fiber, fixed telephony and mobile telephony”explains, on X Monday, Marina Ferrari, resigning Secretary of State to the Minister of the Economy, responsible for Digital Affairs. “Under my supervision, the Defense Electronic Communications Center is cooperating with operators until communications and services are fully restored.”she specifies.

According to the Downdetector website, which references theProblems and breakdowns for all kinds of servicesa peak in outages began on Monday morning around 6 a.m., affecting operators such as SFR, Bouygues and Free.

The SFR long-distance network was targeted in particular at five locations between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., the company explained to France Télévisions. SFR specifies that very large cables were cut, probably with a grinder, and the access grids to the sites were broken. SFR specifies that it operates for Free, TDF, Bouygues and international operators. According to the company, its customers are very little affected because SFR has redundancy solutions unlike other operators.

In the Drôme, the towns of Montélimar, Montboucher and Espeluche are affected by outages, reports France Bleu. However, SFR estimates that few customers are experiencing difficulties on these networks, because the duplicated lines very quickly took over from the damaged ones. These are cables that supply the relay antennas of the 4G network that were cut, specifies France Bleu.

The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office “considers seizing” of all the facts. These “degradations” The attacks come just days after the sabotage of several high-speed train lines caused chaos in stations on Friday morning, just hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.